It was a massive move by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to ignore the M Chinnaswamy Stadium to offer hosting rights for at least one play-off match in IPL 2026. BCCI has selected Dharamshala, New Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad for the final four games of the ongoing Indian Premier League season.
Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has been given the authority to host the grand finale. Traditionally, the defending champions are allowed to host the play-offs.
Why Bengaluru is not fit to host IPL 2026 Final?
This year, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) is the defending champion. So it was expected to see at least one play-off match at their home ground, which is the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
It is reported that BCCI was in communication with the Karnataka State Cricket Association before finalizing the venues for the IPL 2026 play-offs. In a final move, the board picked HPCA Stadium, New International Cricket Stadium, and Narendra Modi Stadium, but why did they opt M. Chinnaswamy out of the equation?
According to a CricBlogger report, BCCI’s final decision to select Ahmedabad to host the final was based on the crowd capacity and the ticket distribution. It is understood that BCCI’s one of the major priorities is to allocate as many tickets as possible for the general spectators.
Crowd capacity and ticket distribution could be two major points
“With BCCI opting for Ahmedabad over Bangalore for the IPL final, it has come to light that the Indian board was offered only five thousand tickets, as the requirement of the Karnataka State Cricket Association was close to thirty thousand in a stadium with a capacity of thirty-five thousand. With the obligation to distribute a huge chunk of tickets to Karnataka MLAs, the BCCI was left with no option but to award the match to Ahmedabad,” the CricBlogger report claimed.
“It has become an issue with KSCA not getting the IPL play-off games by virtue of the Royal Challengers Bangalore being the defending champions. Out of four play-off games, two generally go to the previous year’s champions while the remaining are hosted by the runners-up,” it added further.
Although BCCI has its own clarification behind its final decision, KSCA was not sure whether the number of tickets offered to the BCCI was the real reason behind Bangalore missing out on the play-off matches.
Playoffs Schedule:
- Qualifier 1 – May 26 – HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala
- Eliminator – May 27 – New International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh
- Qualifier 2 – May 29 – New International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh
- Final – May 31 – Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
BCCI Secretary issues an official statement
In a recent interaction with the media, BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia claims that all state hosting associations get 15% of the total capacity for them as complimentary tickets, but KSCA’s demand is more than the ratio.
“The normal protocol, all state hosting associations get 15% of the total capacity for them as complimentary tickets. But we have come to know from various sources that during the hosting of the IPL league matches, Karnataka State Association is taking much more than 15% complimentary tickets,” Saikia told the media.
Guwahati, Assam: BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia says, “The normal protocol, all state hosting associations get 15% of the total capacity for them as complimentary tickets. But we have come to know from various sources that during the hosting of the IPL league matches, Karnataka… pic.twitter.com/tA8MTERFQo
— IANS (@ians_india) May 7, 2026
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